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Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Zombicide: Black Plague in Tabletop Games

Jul 21, 2019 (Updated Jul 21, 2019)  
Zombicide: Black Plague
Zombicide: Black Plague
2015 | Adventure, Fantasy, Fighting, Horror, Medieval
Improved ruleset vs. the original game (3 more)
Fantasy theme
Excellent miniatures!
Improved components vs. the original game
Primarily a combat simulator (1 more)
Low complexity
Improved rules and components, plus the fantasy theme? I wish I discovered this before the original.....
My wife and I love the original Zombicide and have most of the content for the modern setting, minus Kickstarter exclusives and the guest artist characters. So when we found ourselves at the local ComicCon and there was a copy of Black Plague in the game library? We jumped all over that! Compared to the original game, they've fixed several of the rules that bugged us about the game, especially regarding shooting and resources. They've also upgraded the dashboard system to a plastic thing with pegs, which is so much better than the originals that we've seriously considered buying them on eBay and Photoshoping cards for the modern characters so that we can incorporate the upgraded dashboards. We did incorporate a lot of the rules changes into our own games. So if you want to get into Zombicide and can only pick one setting, make it this one.


Like I said, we love Zombicide. But there are a lot of people in the gaming community that feel it lacks something in the way of complexity and strategy. They're not necessarily wrong. It's primarily a tactics game: here's your mission and goal, here's the situation, go! Is it easy? Sometimes. Depends on how lucky you are. Sometimes the zombies spawn in ways and locations that play right into your hands. Sometimes the Abomination spawns right in front of you and you either die immediately or the game bogs down while you scramble to outmaneuver him or find the (scarce) resources to defeat him. It can be pretty random and frustrating at times, and there are people who avoid randomness like the plague in their gaming. But like I said, my wife and I love the system, and this is the best version of it that I've seen.
  
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BioShock The Collection
BioShock The Collection
2017 | Action/Adventure
Still fantastic after a decade (0 more)
A collection of one of the greatest gaming series of our time
The first Bioshock is still my favourite by far. The story, atmosphere and voice acting all still hold up today. Although the graphics and mechanics feel fairly dated by today's standards, they sort of add to the aesthetic and charm of the game. The final boss fight is still terrible though.
The second Bioshock is the worst out of the three, but is still a decent ride and if it hadn't been a part of this particular series, it would probably have faired a lot better critically.
When I first played through the third game, I felt it was extremely overrated and while I still feel that it is, the game is more enjoyable now with no hype surrounding it. I actually appreciated this game more in a vacuum than I did at the time whilst it was being bombarded with critical praise.
  
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
2019 | Fantasy, Medical, Medieval
The mechanism for brewing The challenges of balancing the recipes The multiple versions of the ingredients makes for various flavours of games! (0 more)
Really fun, challenging risk-taking game
A pinch of mandrake, a few berry bombs, and a cricket. The ingredients for a perfect potion - or is it? Depending on how powerful the ingredients are, the same blend could make you a profit, or could blow up in your face!

An interesting drawing mechanism (identical shaped components in individual players bags) means you never know what you will pull out next. Playing at the same time as all the other players is mixed - sometimes a player can have a fun of luck, and get to a high scoring potion before you have even got to the teens, but the next round they might explode in the first few ingredients!

Very variable game, very fun, and very, very replayable. A game for everyones"gaming circle"!
  
Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove
Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove
2017 | Adventure, Card Game, Horror, Humor
The artwork (0 more)
Gameplay is dull (2 more)
Progression feels pointless
The rulebook is dreadful
A Sgallow Shell of a Game
I backed this game on Kickstarter in the belief that it would be an interesting game to play, particularly given the positive reviews it had received. Oh, was I wrong! Whilst the artwork for this game is superb, the game is strung together very poorly. The rulebook is nonesensical and when this was pointed out to the creators, they put together a video...which not only clarified the elemtbs that were extremely opaque, but also patronised the backers who had funded the project. Having played this game a number of times, I wanted to like it, but it has no substance; the decisionsade in the game don't feel as though they have consequence and I frankly didn't care to invest in the game or be bothered by the outcome...a feeling that was mirrored by my gaming group. This is a game best avoided.
  
Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars
2016 | Business / Industrial, Economic, Environmental, Science Fiction, Territory Building
Terraforming Mars review: Turn the “Red Planet” green with this amazing board game
But to find the fun, you have to give Terraforming Mars a chance—and the game does itself few favors when it comes to table appeal.

The game's icons look like vector clip art from the early 2000s, all glittering gold surfaces and apparent depth. The player mats are thin cardboard that provide just enough space to track the game's essential production levels using cubes; because they have no linen finish, the mats are also smooth. Even tiny bumps can dislodge these core gameplay elements, so you need to be extremely careful while playing. Speaking of cubes, those used for counting resources come coated in metallic paint, which has already begun to chip off some of the corners, giving them a slightly sad faux-luxury look.


Critic: Nate Anderson
Read the full review here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/10/terraforming-mars-review/
  
Ora et Labora
Ora et Labora
2011 | Business / Industrial, City Building, Economic, Medieval, Religious
Ora et Labora
Who woulda thought? In 2007 (way before I was gaming) amongst the many new games released at Spiel, one stuck out especially. A game where you try to build a well-balanced farm consisting of crops, pastures and growing your family. No, I am not talking about Farmville! (I get that question over and over from newbies….ugh), I’m talking about Agricola. A game that has now conjured up a slew of awards from “Best complex game” by the Spiel des Jahres to even dethroning Puerto Rico’s 5 year running of highest rated game on the Geek. Uwe Rosenberg, the designer of the now much loved Agricola, has recently released “Ora et Labora” – A hot-off-the-press / sold-out almost everywhere game that I have very quickly formed an extreme love/hate relationship with.
So the good is the game rocks!

Reviewer: Admin
See the full review here: http://boardofplaying.com/archives/1597
  
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Joally (1 KP) rated the PlayStation 3 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Video Games

Jan 30, 2019  
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2011 | Role-Playing
Visuals (5 more)
Mechanics
Characters
Quests
Quality
Free to roam
Glitches (1 more)
Voice actors
Too good to miss!
The game starts at the main quest where the MC (main character) is about to be executed when a dragon appears within the village. It is very instructive as to your controls and how you play the game. I found it relatively easy and I was a beginner to gaming at this point. The story progressed as does the side quests. Characters are almost fledged as if they could be real and there are things in the game which you can have your MC marry an NPC and build your own house etc. It is truly a work of art. There are glitches which make the game frustrating, the combat is simple and easily boring, and they reuse the same voice actors for many of the characters which makes it unbelievable in some cases. Other than that.. Skyrim is beautifully made. (It says PS3 cause there was no PS4 option)